For more than two decades, Olive has been one of Delhi’s great social stages. The blue doors in Mehrauli have witnessed first dates, fashion week after-parties, industry gossip, breakups, birthdays, and the city’s endless pursuit for a good night out. But familiarity can often be a dangerous thing. In recent years, Olive’s portfolio felt settled, certainly successful, but not particularly surprising. Nothing was wrong, but nothing tickled the pickle either. Today, Olive’s most radical idea isn’t a restaurant; The Hidden Club (or THC) feels rejuvenating, off-brand even. It signals the group’s willingness to play again, and boy oh boy, consider us tickled.
Hidden somewhere inside Olive Qutub is a room barely large enough for four guests. No sprawling courtyard, no DJ, no scene to be seen at. Just four bar stools, a handful of cocktails, and lots of banter.
THC began life as an internal R&D laboratory for Olive’s beverage team. It was where new cocktails were tested, ingredients fermented, and ideas workshopped before eventually finding their way onto menus across the Olive ecosystem. Today, that room is less of a laboratory and more of an intimate (emphasis on intimate) salon.
The result feels refreshingly off-brand for folks that built some of India’s most iconic high-volume hospitality destinations. At a moment when every new opening seems engineered for Instagram, THC is deliberately intimate, quiet, and intentionally analogue. Reservations happen via waitlist. Every session is shaped as much by the people sitting around the counter, as the drinks in the glass. Is this Olive’s part speakeasy, part clubhouse, part laboratory?
The cocktails lean heavily on classic structures while embracing modern techniques like fermentation, infusion, carbonation, clarification, and whatever else the team is currently obsessed with. Some drinks are prototypes being actively refined, others are one-offs that may never leave the room. The point is experimentation. Guests are effectively drinking inside the development process.
At the centre of THC is a three-person team that quietly represents some of the most exciting talent in Indian bartending right now.
Leading the creative programme is Chong Sherpa, Olive Group’s R&D Head for Cocktail Programmes. Over a career spanning more than a decade, Sherpa has earned a reputation as one of India’s most technically accomplished bartenders. We remember him from the golden years of PCO, ensuring a steady supply of stiff negronis, liver-destroying Chupacabras, and hot buttered gratis popcorn. He belongs to a generation that helped elevate Indian cocktail culture from simple mixology to genuine craft.
Alongside him is Rajat Tolia, a bartender whose experience stretches across SAZ, Farzi Café, Papaya, and Bo-Tai. On our visit, he shape shifts between bartender, host, raconteur, and occasional co-conspirator, guiding us through six drinks. Completing the trio is Anmol Chhetri, whose easy chemistry with Sherpa and Tolia transforms the experience from a tasting menu into something far more personal. Together, they create the feeling that you’ve somehow stumbled into a private members’ club that forgot to become exclusive.
Their creative freedom produces cocktails that feel playful rather than precious. Banana-infused Campari aperitivos. Mustard-spiked mezcal highballs. Savoury martinis dialled up with acid. Milk-washed tomato cocktails finished with celery air. Serious technique, certainly, but delivered without the self-importance that often accompanies progressive bartending.
What surprised us most, however, was the pricing. At ₹3,000++ per person, guests receive four cocktails, two zero-proof serves, at a seat inside what is effectively Olive’s creative laboratory. In a market where cocktail-led experiences increasingly flirt with five-figure price tags, THC feels remarkably accessible. The exclusivity comes from scarcity, not cost. Having launched India’s first secret supper club ourselves, we’ve long believed that the most compelling hospitality experiences aren’t necessarily the most luxurious. They’re the hardest to replicate.
A room where four people spend an evening talking about music, travel, food memories, obscure bars and whatever rabbit hole emerges after the second cocktail, is almost impossible to scale. Which is precisely why it works, we think. The hardest reservation in Delhi isn’t a Restaurant. It’s The Hidden Club.
Pop open that champagne, the anti-nightclub era is here.
The Lab Mag Verdict: Book the waitlist. Go with people who like conversation as much as cocktails (Or better yet, go with strangers). India’s smallest bar may well be delivering one of its biggest hospitality ideas of the year.
